adrift at sea
by wizz713
Summary: The continent where the herd moved is becoming to full and they decide to leave.while out at sea a tragic acident hapens. The herd must face the truth, the may never see their freind again
1. I've loved, and lost

It was a stormy night. A tiger stood at the front of a huge chunk of ice adrift at sea. he looked out at the turbulent waters. A sloth walked up beside him. "We need to go ashore soon. our supplies are running out." Said the sloth.

"How long do you think they'll last Sid?" The tiger asked.

"How am I supposed to know?" asked Sid. the tiger turned to him.

"Oh, Uh. I don't know! You were the one who was supposed to take inventory!" he barred his teeth at the sloth Sid laughed nervously

"Why don't I go take a look." He said

"Good idea." Said the tiger. another form walked up to stand beside him. this one had a light grey pelt and sapphire blue eyes. He had to admit,she was very pretty. she was a saber tooth like him.

"Don't worry Diego, I've been through worse." She said. "We'll pull through."

"I hope so."

"Come on. lets get somewhere that's more sheltered from this storm." she said. He still looked doubtful, so she added "You need sleep as much as the rest of us." she led him under a small overhang. it wasn't much, but it kept the worst of the rain off of them.

"Good night Shira." Said the male saber. Shira smiled. in a few seconds he was asleep. Shira walked to front of the ship. she stood right where Diego had been just a minute before. She stood there gazing out at the sea stretching as far as the eye could see. suddenly there was a flash of light and a deafening boom. An arc of light seared the sky for an instant. it taped the mast, which caught on fire. luckily the rain put out the fire, but it had done significant damage to the mast. _Great!_ she thought_. that will slow us down! it'll take at least a day to repair that! that meant one more day untill we get to land!_

Suddenly the ship pitched up. Shira looked down and saw that they had mounted a huge wave! she barely had time to think these thoughts when the ship went down. she was thrown forward and off the side of the ship. She managed to hold on with a paw. "HELP!" She yelled as loud as she could. the ice was slippery from the rain and she slipped. she saw Diego run up and look over the edge. she looked down and saw a broken part of the mast that collapsed. she landed head first on the log and was knocked out by the impact. everything went black. she fell unconscious into the sea.

"NO! SHIRA!" Diego shouted above the raging of the storm and the crashing of the seas. There was no answer. he lay down on the deck with his head down. He finally fell into an exhausted sleep.

Diego awoke to utter silence. the storm had passed. He got up and walked over to his friends. they were sitting in a circle talking.

"Hey Diego." Said Manny in a sad mood.

"It wasn't a dream?" he asked, although he already knew the answer.

"No. It wasn't a dream. But I wish it was. We searched for her all night. I'm sorry. We didn't find her." Said the mammoth.

Diego hung his head and let the tears fall. She was dead. Shira, she was gone. He would never see her again. never hear her voice or feel her soothing touch. He would never look into her bright blue eyes and see her laughter. She was gone forever. the others didn't know what to do. they had never seen him like this before. they tried in vein to comfort him.

"Come on." Manny said. "lets repair the ship. We have to go look for her." they left Diego to grieve for his mate. the mast was badly damaged. half off it had been torn away by the storm. they looked at it in dismay. it would be impossible to fix that! It had to be replaced. They hadn't packed spare logs on the trip. "We'll have to find a different way to propel the ship." Manny announced.

"Like what? Sid asked."

"We'll have to row." Manny told him.

"Uh, Manny, could we have a chat about this?"

"No."

"But..."

"Shut up or you'll be the oar." Sid stopped talking immediately. For the rest of the day, they worked at tearing down the mast and making it into smaller sections to be used as oars. then they started rowing. after 2 minutes Sid collapsed from exhaustion and fell asleep on the deck. His granny walked up and hit him with her stick

"Come on Sidney, Get up. You're suposed to be workin to!" he didn't stir "Hum, Some lazy ride I got from you." Diego rowed with the rest of them, but his hope had faded to nothing. before long it was to dark to see. They had to stop. Diego layed down. he tried to sleep, but all he could think was _It's all my fault! It's all my faul!_ images of her kept flashing in his mind. how she had saved them from Gutt and risked her own life for his. He knew that if she had not been at the bow filling in for him, she would still be with him now.


	2. stranded

A tiger washed up on the beach of a small island. She had light grey fur and sapphire blue eyes. After a few minutes, she began to stir. she looked around the small island, with a confused expression on her face. _Where am I?_ she wondered. she tried to remember what had happened the night before. In the middle of her baffled thoughts, her stomach growled. She looked around the island. It wasn't very big. there was a little forest off the beach in the center. she decided that was a good place to start.

_Where am I? How did I get here? _She remembered little of the past. She did not remember her friends. She did not remember her adventures. She did not remember her mate. She did not even remember her own name. Suddenly a mouse darted in front of her. by pure instinct, she caught it.

She struggled to remember something from the previous night. A word popped into her head. _Diego!_ Not a word, a name! But whose name was it? she sat down and ate the mouse. Another picture flashed in her mind. She was standing over a dead animal. A deer._ Who am I? And what are these pictures in my head?_

* * *

Diego remembered rowing all day and all night. he was so exhausted that he could barely move his paws. He wondered where Shira was. Was she thinking about him? He cried as he watched the sun set. He wished that she could be there with him. The sun had sunk out of sight and just its bright beams of light shot through the fading sky. He remembered watching a sunset with her the day that she was lost. Manny walked up And tried to comfort the grieving tiger.

"We'll find her, I promise." He said.

The ship rocked back and forth as another storm hit. before long all of them were drenched. the water churned beneath them. "WE HAVE TO STOP! THERE'S NO POINT TRYING TO GET THROUGH THIS! WE'LL NEVER MAKE IT!" Manny yelled over the storm. Suddenly, directly ahead,

the water fell away. A strong current sucked them around the outside of the cone shaped hole. It dragged them nearer and nearer to the center. "MAELSTROM!" Diego shouted

"ROW!" Manny ordered. They desperately tried to turn the ship.

"THE CURRENTS TO STRONG! WE CAN'T FIGHT IT!" Diego reported.

"BUILD UP MOMENTUM! IT'LL KEEP US ON THE EDGE!" Manny told them.

* * *

Shira sat and watched the sunset. she was reminded of crashing water, storm clouds, and... Diego. They stood on a chunk of ice. She felt some emotion... love. She loved this cat, who ever he was. She saw the tip of the sun disappear over the horizon. It was getting dark. She would need a place to sleep. It began to rain.

She looked around. All the shelter there was, was in the forest. _I Might as well start there._ she thought. She explored for a bit and found a shallow overhang of rock. _Perfect! That will provide plenty of shelter._ She drank from a nearby stream and caught another mouse. Finlay, she crawled into her cave. she was reminded of a bigger cave. one she shared with other animals. She remembered Sitting there with Diego. As she drifted of to sleep, she heard him say, I love you.

The next morning, Shira got up and felt hungry again. She washed and left the cave to go find food. as she was on her way there she fell into a slight dip that was filled with rain water. A memory flashed in her mind. She was swimming, drowning, in the ocean. then something grabbed her around the waist. She came back to reality. There was food to be caught! She ran off and as she did so, another memory came. Diego was chasing her. she ran as fast as she could. When she thought that she had finally lost him, he jumped out at her. she chased a squirrel up a tree. when she reached the top, the squirrel was out on a branch. she reached out and grabbed it. as she did so, she lost her grip and fell.

"Ahhhh!" She shouted. she was on an iceberg. Then, she fell into the ocean bellow.


	3. remembering

A tiger, a sloth, and two mammoths rowed a ship of ice. They Rowed frantically as they were sucked deeper into the whirlpool. They tried to move out of it, but the current was too strong. They felt themselves tiring. They couldn't keep this up for much longer. waves splashed across the deck and thunder rolled in the air. lightning bolts struck all around them. As they went deeper, the current got stronger and more unpredictable. Suddenly, it changed. they were flung in the outer ring again. This time they were facing out, not in. They all went to the side were the current was trying to pull them. they rowed with all of their strength. finally, they were out of the storm. they all flopped down on the deck panting.

"That was close." Diego said.

"Too close." Manny agreed. They were all soaked from the rain and worn out from escaping the storm. the ship was in an even worse state that when they went in. the heavy rain had stopped the masts from catching fire when they were struck, but the lightning still did damage. what remained of the first mast now lay on the deck. The falling wood did damage to the ship also. by now, their ship was so beaten down, that it hardly looked like a ship anymore.

* * *

Shira got out of the puddle she had fallen into. she shook herself and sat down. _Who am I? What do these visions mean? Who is Diego?_ Shira continued to batter herself with questions. She could answer none of them. She lay down on the beach and thought. She was staring out to sea. She thought she saw something floating out at sea. She looked harder. it was blackened. It was a log. one that was struck by lightning! Suddenly a memory came to her

"Don't worry Diego, I've been through worse." She said. "We'll pull through."

"I hope so."

"Come on. lets get somewhere that's more sheltered from this storm." she said. He still looked doubtful, so she added "You need sleep as much as the rest of us." she led him under a small overhang. it wasn't much, but it kept the worst of the rain off of them.

"Good night Shira." Said the male saber. Shira smiled. in a few seconds he was asleep. Shira walked to front of the ship. she stood right where Diego had been just a minute before. She stood there gazing out at the sea stretching as far as the eye could see. suddenly there was a flash of light and a deafening boom. An arc of light seared the sky for an instant. it taped the mast, which caught on fire. luckily the rain put out the fire, but it had done significant damage to the mast. _Great!_ she thought_. that will slow us down! it'll take at least a day to repair that! that means one more day untill we get to land!_

Suddenly the ship pitched up. Shira looked down and saw that they had mounted a huge wave! she barely had time to think these thoughts when the ship went down. she was thrown forward and off the side of the ship. She managed to hold on with a paw. "HELP!" She yelled as loud as she could. the ice was slippery from the rain and she slipped. she saw Diego run up and look over the edge. she looked down and saw a broken part of the mast that collapsed. she landed head first on the log and was knocked out by the impact. everything went black.

"NO! SHIRA!" She heard Diego shout as she slipped out of conciousness.

She stood up, shocked. That answered alot! She now knew that her name was Shira. The visions were memories from her past. Diego was the tiger that loved her! Now memories flooded in like a tidal wave. There was to much! every picture, sound, taste, and smell came down on her at the same time. Her head spun trying to keep up. She remembered Who she was, who she wanted to be. She remembered who Diego was. She remembered everything. It felt like she sat there for hours remembering her past. when she opened her eyes, only a few seconds had passed. She had to find the herd! She had to find Diego! Then she realized, she had no way to get to them. she didn't even know where they were and had no idea where to begin looking! they could be anywhere! Shira sat down again and cried on the beach. She missed the life she once had. She missed the herd. Most of all, she missed Diego.


	4. Found

Shira cried until the sun went down. At last, she got up and dragged herself to her little cave. she lay down and tried to sleep. As all the memories came back, she had felt overwhelmed with all the new information. she had tried to think. she could not. Now that all had quieted down in her head, all she felt was sadness. She knew that the herd was out there looking for her. Diego wouldn't let them stop. He'd make them go on for as long as it took to find her. She didn't think it likely that they ever would find her. the world was a big place. and they had no idea what part of it she was in. _She_ had no idea where she was. Shira yawned. At last, she fell into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

They had been looking day and night for two days now. they were all exhausted from so little sleep. Plus they were rowing the whole time they were awake. Also, they and not stopped for much needed supplies yet. they were barely eating anything.

"Diego," Manny said. "We need to stop."

"No we..."

"We need rest and we need supplies."

"Listen,..."

"No _you _listen!" Manny snapped. "You haven't let us have a good night's sleep or a satisfying meal in days! We're all tiered and starving."

"But..."

"She'll be fine!" Manny told him. "Don't forget, she is the only living thing on earth that can turn your rock solid shell, into a soft playful kitten. She was a pirate! She knows how to take care of herself. We need to take care of ourselves. We _need_ food."

* * *

Shira stood up and looked up at the pretty dawn sky. it was beautiful, but she couldn't enjoy it. She walked out and down to the shore. She had watched the waters all night long, hoping to see a ship coming for her. she had seen nothing. She saw nothing now either. suddenly, it got dark. Shira looked up in surprize. How had she not seen that storm cloud?

* * *

The herd moved their ship towards a small island with a strange looking cloud hovering over it. Then Diego thought he saw something on the shore.

"SHIRA!" She shouted at her.

* * *

Shira looked up as she heard her name being called. she saw Diego on a ship off the shore. They had found her! She leaped up

"Diego!" She shouted back. Joy spread in their hearts. they had finally found each other

* * *

**Notice: This is not the last chapter. I still have a few more in mind. So keep watching!**


	5. The raging sea

**Warning: I am not a weather scientist so asume that I know nothing about storms. Some "facts" in this, and future chapters about storms, may be false.**

* * *

Suddenly the sea beneath the ship began to rock. The wind began to pick up. Sid backed up from the edge in fear. Suddenly, the sky flashed, not with white lightning, but red! a red arc sailed down the sky and landed in the middle of the island that Shira stood on. "What's going on?" Sid asked fearfully. Manny and the others were to stunned to answer. Huge waves began to rise clouds of thunder rolled in. a huge cone was forming. it was a hurricane! It was forming around the island.

"HURRICANE!" Manny yelled. Waves crashed over their ship. and made it difficult not to slip and fall. Diego took control of the rudder and turned them towards the hurricane. "ARE YOU CRAZY?" Manny asked. "WE WON'T SURVIVE THAT!"

"We have to try something." Diego said.

* * *

Shira looked around in wonder at the beauty of this place. deady beauty. All was calm here, in the eye of the hurricane. she knew that it must be a nightmare outside. She, however was safe for the time being. She knew that the herd, especially since Diego was in charge, would do something stupid to try and get to her.

* * *

The ship sailed through the storm and up to the Huge bank of storms that made up the wall of the hurricane. Here, the wind was so strong that it tried to pick up all of them and toss them into the raging waters bellow huge waves 20 feet tall splashed over the deck of the ship. lightning struck all around them and lit the air with flashes of pure white light. they rowed untill they had fought their way through the calmer waters up to the impenetrable wall.

"WE'LL NEVER GET THROUGH THIS! tHE WAVES WILL JUST PUSH US BACK." Manny told Diego. In response, Diego turned and passed between two waves only to be pushed back into the first by another. The impact almost swept Diego off the deck.

"MANNY! WE NEED TO PASS BETWEEN ALL FOUR AT THE SAME TIME!" Diego angled the ship and they rowed with all of their strength. it pushed them through the first four, but they were only swept back by another

* * *

Shira smelled something. she tuned around and walked into the forest. she then saw something that terrified her. the lightning had set the forest on fire! she saw the pool of water that she had fallen in. as the fire reached it, it didn't stop. The fire spread across the surface of the water like it was a pile of kindling


	6. The stormlord's curse

Diego tried again to turn the ship into the hurricane. A wave pushed him again. Then, an idea came to him. He steered towards a wave and up its back. then he went down and steered away. he was going headlong into another wave. he let its current pull him and went full speed ahead. as the wave came down, its current pushed away from its origin point. it propelled them through the outer wall. The wind was so strong in here that it tried to lift him off of his paws. he dug his claws into the deck to make sure he didn't fly away. Sid was clinging to Manny for safety. Granny was the only one not concerned.

"Yee ha!" She yelled. as she sat on The mammoth's back. "I haven't had this much fun for years!"

Lightning struck the ship. Rain pounded the fire out. There had been no red lightning since the hurricane started. water flew in all directions as it was lifted from mighty waves by the hurricane's wind currents. the ship was pummeled by debris that had been knocked off of itself. eventually the wind was so strong that it threatened to pick up the entire ship. The winds tried to push them back out. Diego angled against it to give them moe leverage. then suddenly, everything was calm. They had made it to the eye.

* * *

Shira ran to the beach. she saw the ship as it burst through the wall of the storm. She ran to meet them as they docked.

"Diego!" She shouted. She flung herself at Diego and kissed him.

"Er... Hi Shira. Um... I _really_ think we should be moving." He said as he saw the fire engulf the forest. She got off him looking embarrassed. all of them ran to the ship.

"Diego!" She shouted.

"What?"

"That fire, It can light water."

"What?!" He asked, clearly stunned. He believed her though. She could tell.

"Go!" She yelled as the last anchor was pulled up. They set off to try to get out of the hurricane. luckily, this time most of the current was pushing them outward. as they reached the middle, the current suddenly pushed against them. it was pushing from all directions! They were trapped! as Shira thought this, a huge shape appeared in front of them. It looked like a man. except, far to large. it stood 50 feet tall. Its features were shadowed. She couldn't make it out clearly.

"YOU DO NOT RULE THESE WATER!" It boomed "_I, _AND I ALONE RULE THE SEAS!" They were all stunned. through all of their adventures, they had never encountered anything quite like this. A huge bolt of lightning came from its arm. Diego, without thinking pushed Manny along the slippery deck. he fell off pushing everyone else with him. Diego followed. The figure laughed as it faded into nonexistence.

* * *

**Just so you know (for those of you who don't already) the storm lord, was based off of Poseidon from greek mythology**


	7. trapped

They swam towards the wall in vain. the currents were too strong. as they did so, an orange glow could be seen in the distance as the fire reached the ocean. suddenly they were pushed back all the way inside. the water storm soon became a fire storm as the winds picked up flaming water droplets. even the clouds were on fire!

there was still hope though. the fire on the island was out entirely. but then, the hurricane started moving around them. it was traveling and they were meant to follow, herded like sheep. and to make things worse, they had no ship. there were plenty of icebergs, but no ship. the inferno cyclone was going to touch the far beach any minute and that was a bad place for them to be.

they quickly spoke and decided to follow the indicated path. If they did not, they would be incinerated by the raging flames. better to drown than burn. they thought. because the saw no escape.

four hours later, they were all exhausted and it seemed that the hurricane had been intended to drown them. they were having trouble staying ahead of the wall of flames, but for some reason, it had not lit the ocean around them. they had no idea where they were, but it was not land. there was no land inside the eye. that was both good and bad Diego assumed. however, even the strongest swimmer among them could not keep this up long.

they were all exhausted and on the brink of simply surrendering when they had a bit of luck. an iceberg floated towards them. but this iceberg was big enough to hold them all! they climbed onboard and sat to wait out the night. it never got dark in the hurricane. the fire burned through the night, illuminating the world. however, controlling the iceberg proved difficult. it required at least four of them to steer it.

now they saw the ingenuousness of the rudder. then came the next problem: they had no food, no water, and limited air as the ash in the air was blocking the oxygen from coming in to the cyclone. they would have to escape soon or the would die.


	8. Escape plan

**Sorry its so short, I ran out of time**

* * *

It was so beautiful there, in the middle of the storm. A fine place. A fine place to die. And with her friends sorounding her, Shira thought it a good time also. But the others did not despair. They fought on. And she would fight also, if they called on her. But they could not win. Thwe storm was unescapable.

She was pulled out of her thoughs as Diego called to her.

"Shira! Come help!"

"Coming!" She yelled. They struggled to keep the raft afloat, in the middle of the raging storm.

As had been ascerned earlier, they could not go over the storm, and they ceartainly could not go under the storm. that left one option; go _through_ the storm. But how was this to be done? They were not fire proof to ordinary flames, so the certainly were not proof of this fire. There remained only the question of how.

This had a reletively simple answer. They needed, by some means to procure a sheild. But how? And out of what? A miterial that canot be burned up, and does not aquire an extreme heat. Water!

So they began.


End file.
